


A Year Gone By

by raendown



Series: Rare Pair Bingo 2019 [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-18
Updated: 2019-06-18
Packaged: 2020-05-14 05:13:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19266559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raendown/pseuds/raendown
Summary: Accept Ino's offer to hit the clubs or spend the evening pining over Hinata for the millionth time? It was an easy choice for Sakura.





	A Year Gone By

**Author's Note:**

> For the Rare Pair Bingo - pining prompt.

If she had gone out with Ino tonight like her friend asked she would have had loud music blaring through oversized speakers and dozens of screaming drunken voices all drowning out her unwanted thoughts. She could have had a half dozen shots and danced on the bar top until she got their whole group kicked out to throw up in the Naka River before stumbling home. A year ago she would have taken that invitation in a heartbeat, young and stupid and all too willing to cure a hangover with the medical jutsu she herself had invented during Tsunade’s reign as Hokage.

A year ago she would not have been caught on her walk home by Hinata – armed and dangerous with her shy smile and her pretty new haircut – asking if Sakura would please come to her poetry recital tonight as moral support. That alluring mix of hesitation and confidence in a nervous young woman who had finally learned she was worth something could go down in history as Sakura’s single ultimate weakness.  So far she had yet to come up with any sort of defense against it and Hinata had been able to charm her in to several extended lunch hours and after work activities all without even knowing the effect she had on other people. How could someone so cute also be so unaware of it?

The poetry recital went fine, not a big surprise when Sakura had been gifted the pleasure of reading some of Hinata’s work on occasion and already knew the other woman’s talent for twisting words together to make chains of wonder, to paint beautiful worlds of aching emotion. Mostly what her friend had been worried about was her delivery but it seemed having someone there in the crowd that she knew supported her was all she needed to stay strong, delivering her lines in a voice that was quiet yet captivating. Sakura nearly burst with pride to see the way others in the venue were leaning forward in their seats to hang on Hinata’s every word.

When her friend stepped down from the small stage it was to thunderous applause from those gathered and her face was a brilliant shade of red almost bright enough to hide the pleased grin lighting up her features. Sakura gladly allowed Hinata to hide against her upper arm until attention diverted to the next presenter.

“You were amazing,” she praised, trying her hardest not to stroke the silky dark hair spilling over her shoulder. Hinata squirmed to make certain no one was looking at them anymore before sitting up to reply.

“I was so nervous!”

“We couldn’t tell, I promise.”

Hinata beamed and fiddled with the drink she’d ordered before being called for her turn. “Thank you for coming tonight, Sakura. I don’t know what I would have done looking out at all of those strange faces. It was so much easier to pretend that I was only talking to you and – and you’ve been so kind!”

“No, I really didn’t do much. This was all you.” Sakura smiled and hoped that her heart wasn’t showing in her eyes. What she wouldn’t give to ask her friend to lean in close again, to breathe in the floral scent of all that pretty hair or to feel the warmth of their bodies pressed together. Not even in a dirty way! If all she had was the feeling of sitting close enough for their thighs to pressed against one another she would call herself lucky to have even that much.

As it was, all she could do was continue to deflect Hinata’s thanks and praise the other woman for how far she had come in the years since the war. Hinata insisted on buying her another drink while they listened to a young man bring himself to tears over the words he had written, poems of yearning and heartbreak, longing for the touch of someone who would never know what lay in his heart.

Sakura related to him just a little too much to sit easily; she was glad when he finally closed his book and nodded gratefully to the applause of the crowd.

“I have something to ask you,” Hinata told her when the MC finally announced that the event was at an end and thanked them all for coming. “Can I walk with you on the way home?”

“Nonsense, let me walk you home,” Sakura insisted, if only to let herself pretend that this was a date for the fifteen or so minutes it would take to escort Hinata back to the Hyuga district. Her friend nodded gratefully and left to pay her own tab. Once they were outside and turned down a side street where they had a slight illusion of privacy Sakura waved for the other to go ahead with her question.

Hinata hummed and poked the tips of her index fingers together the way she used to when they were children, when the whole world made her nervous. Back then she hadn’t had a clue of even half her own value. The strides she had taken in the years between, the incredible changes they could all see in her now, Sakura could not be more proud of her friend. She only hoped Hinata was as proud of herself for it all as well.

With a bit of effort she shook those thoughts away and refocused herself on the present. There was no point in getting all mushy right now. She could save that sort of thing for later when she was alone and dwelling on the things she didn’t have, things like Hinata’s hand in hers or warm lips to kiss or – no, that wasn’t helping either.

It was a relief to see her friend finally gathering the words for what she wanted to say.

“You’ve been such a good friend these last few weeks,” Hinata began, not seeming to notice Sakura wince at the word ‘friend’. “I would hate to impose but I was hoping you would be able to help me out with something else that’s very important to me.”

“Of course! All you have to do is ask and I would be happy to help. It’s no imposition, I promise!”

“If you’re sure it won’t be trouble…”

“Well I promised, didn’t I?” Sakura offered her warmest smile and stopped to put one hand on the other woman’s arm. She was rewarded with a smile that put her own to shame.

Looking down at her own hands wringing together, she asked, “Will you teach me…how to flirt?”

“Beg pardon?”

“You see, there’s this…person. A person that doesn’t see me the way I see them. But I would like them to! So I thought maybe you could show me how to talk to people like you do; everyone thinks you’re amazing a-and everyone wants to be like you! Please?” She offered such a sincere look of pleading that Sakura felt her heart thump painfully in her chest, knowing she was going to do this even as she also knew that doing it would hurt her in ways she could never ever let her friend know about.

Concealing her reluctance was the easy part. Actually forcing herself to say the words was more difficult. “Sure. I can do that. I, uh, didn’t realize there was anyone new after you finally got over Naruto.” Sakura braced herself. “Who’s the lucky guy?”

She was surprised to see Hinata bite down on her lip and turn away.

“Actually, it’s a not a boy. She’s…a girl.”

“Oh.” If she tried very hard Sakura was sure she could think of something more painful than this moment right now but, honestly, she couldn’t concentrate well enough to try.

Until now she had never known Hinata was also attracted to women. Falling in love with someone and knowing they _could_ never see you that way was already hard enough to swallow. Survivable, of course, and she was the last person who would ever hold someone’s sexuality against them, but that didn’t change the fact that it was a quiet pain even in the midst of their most pleasant afternoons together. Finding out that Hinata was interested in women? That changed things.

Not much. It changed nothing about her as a person. What it changed was the way Sakura saw _herself_ , no longer doomed to simply fall for the ones who couldn’t love her but instead to fall for the ones who couldn’t see her. Hinata considered her a good friend – and nothing more. No matter how many times she told herself that no one could ever help who they fall in love with she knew exactly what she was going to see the next time she looked in the mirror: girl who was just never good enough. But also a girl who was better than dumping her own self esteem issues on someone else.

It was hard but she managed a supportive thumbs up.

“Alright, so who’s the lucky girl?” With her heart breaking so loudly in her chest it was hard to tell but she was pretty sure she even managed to achieve an upbeat tone.

“She’s someone amazing,” Hinata mumbled, smiling at her twisting hands. “Confident and beautiful, smart, funny, kind and caring. I’ve never met anyone else like her. Maybe she won’t ever see me like I see her but I have to try don’t I?” She looked up with such a hopeful expression that all Sakura could do was nod.

“That’s all any of us can do.”

“Right! So, um, will you help me?”

Sakura bit her lip, firmly told her heart to break a little more quietly, and said, “Of course! Haven’t I always told you that if you need something all you have to do is ask? Don’t worry, Hinata. If she doesn’t see you for the amazing person you are then she’s stupid.”

“Oh, you’re not stupid!”

“What?”

“W-what?”

Both women stared at each other, stunned, neither wanting to speak first. Sakura dared not break the spell in case she misunderstood what she had just heard but even if she wanted to she couldn’t, dizzy with the rush of maybe-maybe-maybe, the chance that all this time she might have been pining away in silence for nothing. The longer Hinata stared at her with wide horrified eyes the more she couldn’t help but believe it could be true.

“I didn’t mean to say that,” her friend squeaked.

“Did you mean…it sounded like…am I the ‘lucky girl’?”

“Please don’t be angry! I didn’t mean to be sneaky or anything! I just thought if I asked _you_ to help me learn to flirt then you would be teaching me things that _you_ would like to have someone say to you and – oh dear. This is terrible.” Hinata ducked her head like a shamed child. “You weren’t meant to know until I could…until I could…be more interesting.”

“More interesting!?”

Hinata flinched and Sakura immediately felt terrible for shouting. Careful to keep her movements slow and gentle, she reached out to take hold of Hinata’s hands with her own.

“I already told you that anyone who didn’t see you for the amazing person you are is stupid. And, like you said, I’m not stupid.” The grin fighting its way on to her face felt like it was cracking at the seams of the bitter yearning she had been drowning in for months, ever since she realized why she couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Hinata long after they had parted from a friendly lunch or an afternoon spar.

“Does…so…but…huh?”

“Maybe I’m not being clear.” Both of them were wearing incredible shades of red across their cheeks when Sakura leaned in close enough for the tips of their noses to brush together. “I really like you so instead of teaching you how to flirt I think it would a lot nicer if you stayed exactly how you are and come to dinner with me tomorrow night. Just us two.”

“L-like a date?”

“Yeah, as a date.”

Sakura bit down on the inside of her cheek just to make sure this was actually real, feeling so light she feared she might float right up in the starry sky above them. From the look on Hinata’s face she hadn’t read the situation wrong. They really had been pining after each other. Knowing that gave her the confidence to duck her head and very slowly lean forward to steal a soft first kiss.

It was no surprise how soft Hinata’s lips were. Sakura had seen her use enough lip balm to have guessed that much. What startled her was the way Hinata immediately sank it to it, pressing them closer together and tightening her grip on the hands clasped between them. She was, as it turned out, an amazing kisser. If Sakura wasn’t already so dizzy from excitement she was sure this alone would have made her head spin with unexpected pleasure.

“That…wasn’t at all what I was expecting,” Hinata whispered.

“Uh, yeah, me neither.” Sakura laughed. “I thought I was going to have to help you pick up somebody else and – I mean, I would have done it! But I’m really glad I don’t have to.”

Her companion giggled quietly. “I’m glad too. It was a _good_ surprise.”

“So. Dinner. How about you come over to my house and we can cook together, then maybe watch a movie?” The idea of a private night together was much more appealing than letting whoever happened to be nearby witness their first fumbling steps. Luckily she was not alone in that opinion.

“Any evening would be wonderful as long as I spend it with you.”

“Oh.” Sakura swallowed against the sudden lump in her throat, unprepared for the raw sincerity in those words. A couple of coughs cleared the lump enough for her to ask, “Can I still walk you home?”

Hinata graced her with a shy smile. “I would like that.”

As they turned to continue on towards the Hyuga district, fingers entwined and hanging loosely between their hips, Sakura couldn’t help but thank the gods that she hadn’t accepted Ino’s invitation to hit the clubs that night. If she had she would have missed out on the one opportunity she had been waiting for and it was anyone’s guess whether either of them would have found the courage to ask another time. A year ago she would have taken Ino’s invitation.

But a year ago she had not been in love.


End file.
